jeffrey brown picks up on that part of the story. >> brown: there remains a great deal of confusion about the extent of the damage in timbuktu. what is known is that the city, a united nations world heritage site, was home to more than 200,000 ancient manuscripts and other artifacts, spanning many centuries, stored in small private libraries and a large research center. special correspondent fred de sam lazaro visited timbuktu ten years r the pbs program "religion and ethics newsweekly." here's an excerpt from his report. >> reporter: it's an impof returned town of 30,000 most of them nomadic traders or subsistence farmers but tick buck due is rich in history, history that sub saharan has only oral and no written traditions. >> before there was an america, timbuktu was a thriving center of learning with a university. professors were teaching philosophy, theology and mathematics. >> reporter: professor al haj says the earliest records go back to the 11th century to a prosperous desert cross roads where salt, gold, slaves, and scholarship were exchanged. that all ended in the late 1500s wit